Practicality
by Mel966
Summary: Lily was a practical girl. She was not the kind who spent her days mooning after a boy or giggling with girlfriends over one. James Potter might be the one boy who could change her... and make her love him. How James & Lily fell in love in 7th year. JXL
1. Chapter 1

_Here is my first Harry Potter fanfic. I hope you enjoy. LilyXJAmes forever. 3_

Lily was a practical girl. She was not the kind who spent her days mooning after a boy or giggling with girlfriends over one. That is not to say that she was oblivious to the opposite sex—she noticed boys just as much as any other teenage girl. What really made her different was the cool way that she regarded a boy when he flirted with her, like she was amused with his petty attempts at securing her affections. She would flip her hair unconsciously, sigh and politely tell him that she was not interested.

James Potter, however, pushed the boundaries at normal flirting and pressed Lily to violent reactions that no other boy could.

"No, _damn_ it, Potter! I will _not_ go out with you," she snapped harshly, glowering at his cockily hopeful grin. He hadn't even opened his mouth to ask his daily question.

"Evans: fifty one, Potter: zero," James's best friend, Sirius Black, chortled as he sat down beside James at breakfast.

James took the routine rejection in stride; he was accustomed to this and it did not dampen his ridiculous hope. With a grin, he sat across the table from Lily, much to her annoyance. "Pass the syrup, Moony," he said as he loaded his plate full of French toast.

Lily, however, was in no mood to be eating her breakfast across from him and his friends. "Oh, go sit somewhere else this morning, Potter, I'm in no mood for you," she told him icily.

This, too, did not bother him. James was quite used to her hostility in the mornings. By that time, a week before their N.E.W.T. exams in their seventh year, he knew perfectly well that Lily was not a morning person. "Good morning to you too, Evans," he said cheerfully, pouring maple syrup all over his French toast.

Lily had returned to her favorite tactic for dealing with James: developing deafness and blindness where he was concerned. She turned to her friend Alice, ignoring the teenage boys sitting across from them. "Have you talked to Frank yet?" she asked her friend curiously, disregarding the stare of James Potter that she could feel burning into her skin.

"Not yet," Alice replied nervously. "What do you think he'll say?"

Lily regarded her friend's smooth, clear complexion, wide set brown eyes and wavy hair. "He'll say yes," she predicted confidently. "Why shouldn't he?"

"Maybe he thinks that boys should make the first move," Alice fretted. "Maybe he doesn't want to be distracted right before exams."

"If he thinks that you will be putting him before any studying the week before exams, he doesn't know you _at all_, Al," Lily said with a laugh.

It was at this time that the daily owls began soaring into the Great Hall, each carrying a small letter or package for a specific student. This did not distract Lily; she was familiarized with not receiving any mail—for who was going to write to her? Her parents were Muggles and had no means of sending a letter by owl. Her sister had once gotten a letter to Hogwarts, when they were children, but Petunia despised Lily, and would rather suffer a horrid death than write to her sister. That fact saddened Lily some, but she thought it inevitable; Petunia had always been a bit prone to jealousy when it came to her younger sister.

Across the table, a large barn owl was bringing James the _Daily Prophet_ and a grey screech owl was providing mousy Peter Pettigrew with a package containing extensive advice on his N.E.W.T.'s from his mother, at which Sirius was reading over his shoulder and snickering at.

"No mail today?" James asked Lily, while flipping open the _Prophet_ to read a truly interesting article on the Deputy Minister of Magic's many scandalous exploits of witches in Scotland.

She contemplated pretending she had not heard him, but decided that was unnecessarily rude, as she was seated only a few feet from him. Grudgingly, she replied, "No."

"Your articulate conversation is dazzling," James said sarcastically, grinning at her in a way that made her want to smile back.

Immediately, she was confused. Since when did she want to smile back at _James Potter_? She should want to hit him with a particularly complex Banishing Charm—such was the norm for Lily. Rapidly, she was losing her appetite. Judging by the amount of students leaving the Great Hall, it was not too early to start walking towards her first class of the day: Potions. Without replying to James's earlier sarcastic remark, she gathered her book bag from beneath her seat and stood.

"You ready, Al?" she asked her friend.

Alice was staring openly at Frank Longbottom, who was seated halfway down the table. "Not yet, Lily, you can go. I'll catch up," she said, her eyes not straying from their target.

Lily started to walk down the hallway, not bothered by the lonely walk to the dungeons. When she got there, maybe she could set up her cauldron early, so as to be ready when Professor Slughorn started class. They would be making Essence of Invincibility, a particularly complex potion that, if made correctly, causes the drinker to experience a very intense feeling of confidence. Professor Slughorn had warned the class that this potion was particularly dangerous if drunk by an already confident person or if drunk too often. Lily wondered if James had been drinking the Essence of Invincibility since he could walk; that would explain his ridiculous egotistical view of himself.

"Hey, Evans!"

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, mused Lily as James called out to her. "Leave me alone, Potter," she retorted, not snappily, but calmly; she knew her wishes were not going to be obeyed but was going to ignore him the best she could. Smile at James Potter? No, she was going to ignore him until he moved on. This particular tactic she had been employing on him for almost a month, and he had not yet moved on. It was only a matter of time, she hoped.

He caught up with her, smiling that adorable—no, that _aggravating _grin. Oh, what was wrong with her today? "Have I ever left you alone before?" he said with a laugh. He pushed his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose with one hand. On some people, glasses looked unbecoming, but James Potter somehow managed to make them not so.

"No," she said, somewhat bitterly, because he had never, in fact, upheld her desire to be left alone by him.

He looked surprised by her tone, but she was back to ignoring him as she walked along the corridor and paid it little attention. There was silence for the rest of the walk to Potions.

Slughorn was not yet in the classroom when they arrived; it was completely vacant except for Severus Snape, whom Lily ignored even more efficiently that James Potter. She had not spoken to him in almost six months, and their last encounter had been hardly one at that. Needless to say, she was not missing him and his fervent obsession with the Dark Arts.

Lily set up her cauldron at her normal spot, in the front of the classroom, in the corner to have the quickest access to the students' supplies. Instead of setting up in the back of the classroom to have the widest range of Dungbomb hurling while remaining unnoticed as the culprit, James started setting up his cauldron beside Lily's, not speaking to her, thankfully, as he got out his Potions book and silver knife and dragon-hide gloves.

Several minutes later, the rest of the class arrived in small groups: Alice and Frank arrived, holding hands, at which Lily grinned happily; Sirius, Remus and Peter arrived together, laughing over something and quickly claiming the seats beside James; the large pack of Slytherins that were friends with Snape and up to their noses in Dark Arts.

Professor Slughorn emerged from his office, eyeing the students who were just rushing into the classroom with distaste before clearing his throat loudly. "Welcome to Potions. As I mentioned in yesterday's lesson, today we are attempting the Essence of Invincibility—Nott, Avery, if the two of you have something so important that it cannot wait, we are all willing to listen." The two Slytherin boys glared coldly at Slughorn, obviously unwilling to share what was written on the piece of paper being passed between them. "Very well. We are attempting the Essence of Invincibility today. I explained everything yesterday to give you the maximum amount of time to complete the potion. The instructions are on page four hundred and fifty-two in your books. Good luck to you all. I will be watching," he warned, mainly towards Sirius and James, who exchanged grins at each other.

Lily opened her book, but did not bother to read the directions; she had gone over them last night while studying for her Potions N.E.W.T. The essence of invincibility was bound to show up on their practical exam and it was crucial for everything this day to go as planned. She carefully measured the correct amount of dragon blood before pouring it into her cauldron. While it mixed with the water boiling the cauldron and diluted, she cut up several gurdyroots into evenly sliced pieces. Potions was an easy subject for Lily; all it required was patience and the ability to follow directions.

Halfway through the lesson, Lily's potion was already the desired shade of blazing orange, and she had only a few more lines of instructions to go. Feeling quite proud of herself, she examined her peers' potions to see how everyone else was attempting it. Alice in the row behind her had managed to create an yellow-green colored potion, and was laughing with Frank over it; Lily smiled at the pair of them together. Snape's potion, Lily could tell from across the room, was orange and was emitting the strange smoke that the potion should be emitting at one of the final stages before completion. Beside her, James had obviously gone wrong with his potion; it reeked strongly of onion and skunk.

"Ah, _damn_," James cursed as he dropped half of a pint of his dragon blood into the cauldron at once. Immediately, the cauldron exploded, drenching Lily, James, and Sirius with the stinky mess. Lily let out a yelp as the stuff burned her skin and created holes in her robes. The places where the potion had made contact with skin began to swell enormously and very rapidly; by the time Slughorn had made his way over to see what had occurred, Lily had watched James's face swell like a balloon from where the potion had splattered him.

"Hospital wing," Slughorn ordered after waving his wand and clearing the potion off the table. "Madame Pomfrey will need to attend to those burns and you might want to pick up some new robes from your common room before coming back." Lily nodded sheepishly, having the feeling that half of her face must appear as if a hive of bees had stung her; it certainly felt that way. Nodding was painful and she quickly rose from her seat to follow James and Sirius very rapidly to the hospital wing.

_This was originally going to be a oneshot, but then as I started writing, I realized it would become the longest oneshot in the history of long oneshots. Therefore, it is no longer a oneshot. I would keep going, but its midnight, and I don't want to end up writing too much. This is my first Harry Potter fanfic, and it is LONG overdue. I love Lily and James. Thank you very much for reading, and have a great day or night or whatever time it is._

_Mel._


	2. Chapter 2

_Positive feedback from readers. :) It really makes my day when people review and have positive things to say. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!_

"Oi, watch it!" yelled James in a loud, obnoxious voice as Madame Pomfrey pressed a salve to his burns.

Lily thought he quite deserved the discomfort of the cold salve for his particularly poor potion and clumsiness with his dragon blood. Even by James's poor standards in Potions class, the class that day had been quite impressively bad. Lily had never had to leave class for the hospital wing before.

"If you would stay still, Mr. Potter," Madame Pomfrey said calmly while rubbing the salve on a burn on his arm, "this would be much quicker and easier." Despite James's complaints for the past fifteen minutes, she had retained her patience with him. This was a feat worthy of a medal, Lily thought.

James yelped again when more salve was dumped on his burns and Sirius snickered in the hospital bed next to him, awaiting the salve for his own burns. The salve was effectively banishing the burns and swelling, but it was very uncomfortable and even painful while it was working. Lily, whom had much less burns than James and was already healed, stood up. "May I go back to class now?" she loudly asked Madame Pomfrey to be heard over James's complaints.

"Not going to wait for me, Evans?" James teased before Madame Pomfrey could reply. He feigned great offense at her words. "What if I can't walk by myself?" This was accompanied with a wink.

Lily completely disregarded his statement and waited for Madame Pomfrey's reply. The older woman said kindly, "You may, Miss Evans." Relieved, Lily hastily left the hospital wing, slinging her book bad over her shoulder.

She would have just enough time to return to the common room and change out of the robes that the potion had singed before heading to her next class of the day: Transfiguration. Unfortunately for Lily, James was going to be in that class as well, and undoubtedly would be even more obnoxious than usual because of the Potions incident that morning. Professor McGonagall wasn't nearly as tolerant as Professor Slughorn; she would not be so lenient with James if he fooled around or was careless.

"_Hungarian Horntail_," she told the Fat Lady when she reached Gryffindor tower. The portrait swung open, revealing the vacant common room—all the other students were in class. Lily climbed the stairs to the dormitory that she shared with Alice and two other girls in their year. She picked out a pair of robes from her trunk at the foot of her bed and quickly changed, making a mental note to get the ruined robes fixed as soon as she could. She would need to take them to a shop; the damage inflicted in Potions would not be easily fixed by a simple spell.

Dressed in fresh and clean robes, Lily climbed back down the stairs. She crossed the common room and climbed out the portrait hole just as Sirius and James climbed in.

"Hey, Evans," James said happily. "Glad to run into you here."

Irritated, Lily ignored him as best as she could and avoided him as she exited into the hall.

"Wait! Evans! Accio Transfiguration book!" James cried, waving his wand. His Transfiguration book quickly joined him and he followed Lily out of the portrait hole, trailed closely by Sirius. Neither of them bothered to change out of their robes, Lily thought with annoyance. Their robes weren't destroyed.

Class was just ending; in the corridor, students were filing out of the classrooms, filling the halls with loud chatter and a crowd that made it easier for Lily to evade James and his best friend. But James was persistent just as much as Lily was evasive.

"Evans, come on," groaned James as he struggled to catch up with her brisk stride, dodging a group of fifth years.

"Tough luck, mate," Sirius said consolingly to him.

They were the first to arrive in Transfiguration. The tabby cat was sitting on the desk of McGonagall, looking down at some papers. Lily took her normal seat, and, like in Potions, James sat beside her with a cocky grin. Transfiguration was his best subject and he loved showing off.

Lily took out her book and a piece of parchment to take notes on, tuning out James's and Sirius's laughter. Out of her peripheral vision, she could tell that James was pointing his wand at a quill, making it do a strange sort of dance across the table. When he caught her looking, he made the quill saunter up to Lily, bow and make a gesture that looked like it was asking her to dance. She looked away quickly, hiding a smile, and went back to heading her paper.

"Are… are you okay, Lily?" a tentative voice asked. Lily looked up sharply into the black eyes of Severus Snape. He gestured to her face and robes, obviously concerned about the Potions incident.

The quill stopped dancing.

There were a million things Lily wanted to say or do at that moment. Things like: 'Since when do you care?' or 'Where are your Death Eater friends?' or 'Leave me alone, dammit!' She chose none of these things, and replied quietly, but shortly, "I'm fine."

He opened his mouth to say something more, and then closed his mouth as he eyed James with strong loathing. Lily sighed and looked down. Severus Snape said nothing more and sat down among his friends, very quiet.

"Are you actually okay?" James muttered to her, sounding genuinely concerned.

Her patience with Snape did not extend to him. "Leave me alone, Potter," she told him with cold animosity in her voice.

He did not reply; this was unusual. Lily peeked up at him and was surprised to see that he looked… hurt. She felt her anger ebb. Damn it, Potter, she thought desperately, don't. She found it increasingly hard to be mad at him when he looked so sad… so forlorn. "Sorry," she murmured quietly, gently, in the softest voice she had ever used with him.

James seemed surprised by this, almost like he didn't know how to react to a Lily who was not shouting at him to leave her alone. "It's okay," he replied in a voice just as soft. She shivered involuntarily and then, chiding herself for being foolish, went back to her paper.

James didn't say anything else, and for this, Lily was grateful. She went back to the sanctum and privacy of her confused thoughts. What was with her today? Being _nice_ to James Potter? Apologizing for snapping at him? Had someone slipped Essence of Insanity into her pumpkin juice that morning? Surely she would have noticed, being the Potions whiz that she was. There had to be an explanation. It must be the stress of the upcoming exams. She, Lily Evans, did not like James Potter _at all_.

Lily knew she was being petty in her thoughts, but she didn't care.

For once, she wasn't paying close attention when Professor McGonagall gave a lecture on the turtles they would be transfiguring into ravens. She barely even noticed when McGonagall called on her to pass out the turtles to the class. Her name had been repeated several times before James lightly prodded her side to get her attention.

Blushing a deep red, she rose from her seat and took the box of small, green turtles from an irritated McGonagall, passing them to the class as quickly as she could before sitting back down, still pink.

"You're beautiful when you're blushing," James whispered to her as she sat down.

She didn't have the opportunity to reply before Professor McGonagall began speaking again. "Remember the incantation: _Corbeausis_. By the end of the period, everyone should be able to at least give their turtles feathers. Those who fool around shall see me after class for a detention. Proceed."

Lily soon realized she should have been paying better attention to the lecture at the beginning of the class; after uttering 'Corbeausis,' several times, the only thing she had accomplished was scaring her turtle into hiding within its shell.

"You tap its shell three times while saying it," James told her pompously. He tapped his turtle's shell as a demonstration and said, "Corbeausis," firmly. To Lily's aggravation, black feathers sprouted out of the turtle and it grew a beak. It was not quite a raven, but was far closer than others' attempts.

"How do you do that?" Lily grumbled, in spite of herself.

He smiled at her. "Magic," he replied cheekily.

"Well done, Mr. Potter!" McGonagall exclaimed as she spotted his feathery turtle. She approached the table and tapped his raven-turtle, reverting it to its turtle state. "Try tapping more firmly, and you should have the spell down," she advised him. She caught sight of Sirius's turtle, which had just let out a raven-like screech and ruffled its black feathers, and shook her head, bewildered. "Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, you amaze me," she informed them as she turned Sirius's almost-raven back into a turtle.

"Nice, Padfoot," James told his friend. "Did you hear? Apparently, we're _amazing_ at Transfiguration." His voice pretended shock. They both laughed heartily at that, which Lily did not understand.

She tapped the turtle three times and said, "Corbeausis." Her turtle turned an unhealthy shade of blackish-green, but did not sprout feathers or a beak. She enviously eyed James, who, on his third attempt, had produced a raven.

"Evans, don't tap quite so hard," James told her, as his raven bit at his fingers.

Lily glowered at him, annoyed with his superior tone and his success. He grinned at her. "Like this," he said, tapping his wand of the shell of her turtle as a demonstration. Grudgingly, she copied him, tapping lightly on the back of her turtle.

"Corbeausis," she said. Feathers sprouted from the turtle, much to her annoyance. Stupid James had helped her. Urgh, she thought, how annoying; he was right.

"Good job, Evans," he said seriously, looking at her without a hint of a joke in his face.

This threw her off. "Thank y—Whatever, Potter," she corrected herself just in time.

He laughed, the seriousness temporarily gone. "That's why I love you, Lily," he told her jokingly. She flushed furiously, looking down at her very tightly clenched hands in her lap.

"Leave me alone, Potter," she told him, suddenly _very_ tired of his childish crush.

He lightly touched her cheek and she glowered at him for it. "Sorry, I can't do that," he told her regretfully. A strange thing happened to Lily then—something that had never happened before because of James: her breath caught in her throat and she found that she could not look away from his green eyes.

"Prongs, check this out," Sirius said, laughing. James looked away from Lily to examine what his best friend was showing him, and she slowly released the breath she had been holding.

Lily was more confused than she had been for a long time. Was James Potter attempting a new tactic: kindness and gently flattery? Well, it was more effective than his previous attempts, Lily confessed to herself. However, she thought haughtily, it still would not work because James was a _toerag_, a speck of dirt on the bottom of her shoe, and she was never going to go out with him. Not even if every other Y chromosome vanished off the earth. She would date the Giant Squid, in that case.

James was an arrogant swine, she reassured herself as the bell rang and she stood from her seat. He was just simply an ass.

"Evans, you forgot your book," he called after her as she left the Transfiguration classroom. "Here." He slipped it into her book bag kindly and then slowed down to allow Sirius, Remus and Peter to catch up with him.

Lily looked back at him and he caught her eye warmly. The warmth, and lack of lusty amusement, confused Lily even further.

_I was insane for thinking I could possibly have a oneshot. It is terribly difficult to stop writing about Lily and James. They are such genuinely lovable characters. Thanks for reading, please review, and have a fantastic day._

_Mel._


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